OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF 


DISCOURSE 


SURVIVING  REMNANT  OF  THE  INDIAN  RACE 


UNITED    STATES. 


DELIVERED     ON     THE    24"TH    OCTOBER,    1836,    BEFORE     THE    SOCIETY     FOR 
COMMEMORATING    THE    LANDING    OF    WILLIAM    PENN. 


'•To-morrow  the   traveller  shall  come;  he  who  saw  me  shall  come; 
his  eye  shall  seek  me  through  the  fields,  and  shall  not  find  me.''— USSIAN. 


BY  JOB  R.)TYSON. 
•  • « 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PRINTED  BY  A.  VVALDIE,  4f,  CARPENTER  STREET. 
1836. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  "  SOCIETY  ron  CoMMEMonATiJTG  THE 
LA.NBTXG  OF  WILLIAM  PKXX,"  held  at  Philadelphia,  on  the  24th 
day  of  October,  1836, 

On  motion  of  John  Vaughan,  Esq.,  it  was  unanimously 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  tendered  to  Jon  R. 
TV sox,  Esq.  for  his  able  and  eloquent  Oration,  this  day  delivered,  on 
"  The  Surviving  Remnant  of  the  Indian  Race  in  the  United  States," 
and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  for  publication. 

From  the  Minutes. 

JOSEPH  PARKER  Nonius,  Preset. 
J.    FRANCIS   FISHER,   Sec'ry  firo  1cm. 


DISCOURSE. 


GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  PENN  SOCIETY  : 

The  historical  orator  has  a  wide  field  open  to  his 
researches.  But  every  portion  is  not  alike  productive 
or  beautiful ;  and  when  he  reflects  how  many  of  its 
finest  tracts  have  been  explored,  and  their  riches 
appropriated,  he  may  well  pause  in  the  selection  of 
his  topic.  He  may  alight  upon  an  obscure  and  un 
attractive  period  to  which  no  interest  can  be  imparted, 
or  upon  dry  and  trivial  events,  which  defy  the  utmost 
exertions  of  industry  to  enliven  and  exalt.  The 
stream  of  time  sweeps  down  to  us,  in  its  course,  an 
intermixture  of  treasures  and  burthens;  it  bears  upon 
its  pregnant  bosom,  shells  as  well  as  shell-fish,  pebbles 
as  well  as  gems.  Examination  only  can  ascertain 
the  precise  nature  of  its  deposites,  and  show  us  which 
has  value,  and  which  is  worthless. 

Let  me,  however,  venture  to  call  your  attention  to 
a  subject,  which,  if  destitute  of  the  charms  of  historical 


attractiveness,  possesses,  at  this  moment,  and  on  such 
an  occasion,  the  merit  of  a  peculiar  adaptation,  both 
with  reference  to  its  bearings  upon  the  principles  of 
Penn,  and  its  importance  to  the  national  character. 
The  theme  addresses  itself  so  directly  to  the  feelings 
and  sensibilities,  that  in  the  earnest  wish  to  develope 
it,  I  almost  forget  my  entire  inability  to  do  it  justice. 

There  was  no  subject  which  clung  to  the  heart  of 
William  Penn  with  a  fonder  tenacity  and  more  lively 
fervour,  than  justice  to  the  original  proprietors  of  this 
country.  It  had  a  place  in  his  affections  equal,  if  not 
superior,  to  those  other  distinguishing  features  of  his 
policy — I  mean  religious  freedom  and  penal  clemency. 
Permit  me,  then,  to  trace,  with  a  feeble  hand,  the 
high  and  conscientious  course,  which,  in  imitation  of 
the  founder  of  Pennsylvania,  this  nation  is  called 
upon  to  adopt,  towards  the  surviving  remnant  of  the 
Indian  race,  by  every  impulse  of  virtuous  sentiment, 
by  every  motive  of  honourable  ambition. 

The  origin  of  the  great  Indian  family,  the  lan 
guages  of  the  different  tribes,  their  habits  and  antiqui 
ties,  have  each  been  canvassed  by  learned  enquiry 
and  ingenious  speculation.  In  this  ardour  of  research, 
conducted  by  the  master  spirits  of  the  age,  it  is  natural 
to  expect  that  the  attention  of  men  will  be  directed  not 
merely  to  the  philosophy  of  Indian  life  and  manners, 


but  to  every  portion  of  his  living  history.  Mankind 
will  be  curious  to  know  the  story  of  the  Indian,  not 
only  as  a  solitary  being,  in  his  lonely  and  sequestered 
haunts,  but  in  his  intercourse  with  those  by  whom  his 
country  has  been  invaded  and  overrun.  They  will 
scan  with  a  critical  eye  the  character  of  that  inter 
course:  and  in  pursuing  the  causes  of  his  degeneracy 
arid  decline,  they  will  estimate,  at  their  proper  value, 
an  imputed  voluntary  debasement  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  baneful  arts  of  superior  cunning  on  the  other. 
Let  us,  then,  be  true  to  ourselves;  and  with  the  high- 
minded  honour  of  an  enlightened  and  Christian  com 
munity,  prevent  the  extinction  of  a  race,  the  history 
of  whose  downfall  would  involve  the  history  of  our 
own  craft  and  perfidy. 

The  American  Indian  is  sometimes  regarded  as  a 
being  who  is  prone  to  all  that  is  revolting  and  cruel. 
He  is  cherished,  in  excited  imaginations,  as  a  demo 
niac  phantasm,  delighting  in  bloodshed,  without  a 
spark  of  generous  sentiment  or  native  benevolence. 
The  philosophy  of  man  should  teach  us,  that  the 
Indian  is  nothing  less  than  a  human  being,  in  whom 
the  animal  tendencies  predominate  over  the  spiritual. 
His  morals  and  intellect  having  received  neither  cul 
ture  nor  development,  he  possesses,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  infirmities  of  humanity;  while  on  the  other  the 
divine  spark  in  his  heart,  if  not  blown  into  a  genial 


8 

warmth,  has  not  been  extinguished  by  an  artificial 
polish.  His  affections  are  strong,  because  they  are 
confined  to  a  few  objects ;  his  enmities  are  deep  and 
permanent,  because  they  are  nursed  in  secret,  without 
a  religion  to  control  them.  Friendship  is  with  him 
a  sacred  sentiment.  He  undertakes  long  and  toilsome 
journeys  to  do  justice  to  its  object ;  he  exposes  him 
self,  for  its  sake,  to  every  species  of  privation  ;  he 
fights  for  it ;  and  often  dies  in  its  defence.  He 
appoints  no  facial  messenger  to  proclaim,  by  an  empty 
formality,  the  commencement  of  war.*  Whilst  the 
European  seeks  advantages  in  the  subtle  finesse  of 
negotiation,  the  American  pursues  them  according  to 
the  instincts  of  a  less  refined  nature,  and  the  dictates 
of  a  less  sublimated  policy.  He  seeks  his  enemy 
before  he  expects  him,  and  thus  renders  him  his  prey. 

No  better  evidence  need  be  adduced  of  his  capacity 
for  a  lively  and  lasting  friendship,  than  the  history  of 
Pennsylvania,  during  the  life  time  of  the  founder. 
It  is  refreshing  and  delightful  to  see  one  fair  page,  in 
the  dark  volume  of  injustice  and  crime,  which 
American  annals,  on  this  subject,  present.  While 
this  page  reflects  upon  the  past  an  accumulated 
odium,  it  furnishes  lessons  for  the  guide  and  edifica 
tion  of  the  future.  Let  me  invite  the  philanthropist 
to  this  affecting  story. 

*  See  Appendix.     Note  1. 


A  chief  object  of  Perm,  in  the  settlement  of  his  pro 
vince,  was  neither  land,  gold,  nor  dominion,  but  "  the 
glory  of  G  jd,  by  th?.  civilisation  of  the  poor  Indian.'' 
Upon  his  arrival  in  Pennsylvania,  the  pledge  con 
tained  in  his  Charter  \vas  redaemed  by  a  friendly  com 
pact  with  the  "poor  Indian,''  which  was  never  to  be 
violated,  and  by  an  uniform  and  scrupulous  devotion 
to  his  rights  and  interests.  Oldmixon  and  Clarkson 
inform  us,  that  he  expended  '-'thousands  of  pounds" 
for  the  physical  and  social  improvement  of  these 
untutored  and  houseless  tenants  of  the  woods.  His 
estate  became  impaired  by  the  munificence  of  his 
bounty. — In  return  for  benevolences  so  generous  and 
pure,  the  Indians  showed  a  reality  of  affection  and  an 
ardour  of  gratitude,  which  they  had  on  no  previous 
occasion  professed.  The  colony  was  exempted  from 
those  calamities  of  war  and  desolation,  which  form  so 
prominent  a  picture  in  the  early  annals  of  American 
settlements.  During  a  period  of  forty  ycarsj  the 
settlers  and  the  natives  lived  harmoniously  together, 
neither  party  complaining  of  a  single  act  of 
violence,  or  the  infliction  of  an  injury  unredressed. 
The  memory  of  Penn  lived  green  and  fresh  in  their 
esteem,  gratitude,  and  reverence,  a  century  after. 

The  tribe,  thus  subdued  by  the  pacific  and  philan 
thropic  principles  of  Penn,  has  been  untruly  described 
as  a  cowardly  and  broken-down  race.  They  were  a 

2 


10 

branch  of  the  great  family  of  Indians,  who,  for  so 
many  years,  carried  on  a  fierce  and  bloody  strife  with 
the  Alligewi  on  the  Mississippi,  and  waged  a  deter 
mined  hostility  with  the  Mengwe.  At  one  period, 
they  were  the  undisputed  masters  of  the  large  tract  of 
country,  now  known  as  the  territory  of  the  middle 
states.  On  the  arrival  of  the  English,  their  number 
in  Pennsylvania  was  computed  at  thirty  or  forty 
thousand  souls.  Their  history  spoke  only  of  conquest. 
They  were  a  brave,  proud,  and  warlike  race,  who 
gloried  in  the  preservation  of  a  character  for  valour, 
descended  from  the  remotest  times.  The  confederacy 
of  the  Six  Nations,  by  whom  they  were  finally  van 
quished,  was  not  formed  until  1712,  and  their  defeat, 
as  evidenced  by  their  peculiar  subjugation,*  occurred 
within  a  few  months  antecedent  to  the  demise  of  the 
proprietary.  This  same  people  annihilated  the  colony 
of  De  Vries,  in  1632 :  formed  a  conspiracy  to  exter 
minate  the  Swedes,  under  Printz,  in  1646 ;  and  were 
the  authors  of  the  subsequent  murders  which  afflicted 
the  settlement,  before  the  accession  of  the  English 
colonists. 

Such  an  example  furnishes  some  insight  into  the 
elements  of  the  Indian  character.  Little  doubt  can 
exist,  if  the  subject  were  fairly  examined,  that  most 
of  those  sanguinary  wars,  of  which  history  speaks 

*  See  Appendix.     Note  2. 


11 

with  a  shudder,  would  be  found  to  have  arisen  less 
from  the  blood-thirsty  Indian,  than  from  the  aggres 
sions  of  his  gold-thirsty  and  land-thirsty  defamer. 

Soon  after  the  discovery  of  America,  the  pope 
issued  a  bull,  which  authorised  the  kings  of  Spain  to 
conquer  and  subdue  its  infidel  inhabitants.  And  what, 
but  the  admitted  desire  of  conquest  and  plunder,  led 
Cortes  to  Mexico, — Pizarro  to  Peru, — and  liernando 
de  Soto  to  Florida  ?  Their  steps  were  marked  with 
desolation  and  death.  Human  victims  were  daily 
sacrificed,  in  countless  numbers,  on  the  shrine  of 
their  cupidity  and  ambition.  Blood-hounds  dislodged 
from  their  fastnesses  those  miserable  beings  whom 
the  satiated  sword  had  spared.  Pity  was  extinguished 
in  the  hearts  of  these  fierce  invaders ; — for  neither 
honour  nor  humanity  could  have  place  in  a  war,  the 
declared  object  of  which  was  extermination.  The 
details  of  these  tragical  events  would  sicken  the 
natural  sensibilities  :  I  therefore  leave  the  revolting 
narrative  to  that  barbarous  taste,  if  it  exist,  which  can 
dwell,  without  emotion  or  shame,  upon  such  exploits 
of  Christian  conquerors. 

About  a  century  after  the  letter  of  his  holiness, 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  in  emulation,  perhaps, 
of  the  prerogative  he  assumed,  issued  a  proclamation 
directing  her  subjects  to  subdue  the  pao-an  savages  of 


12 

the  American  continent.  With  the  liberality  of  a 
sovereign,  who  could  give  away  what  she  did  not 
possess,  she  bountifully  granted  to  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert,  all  those  countries  which  were  not  in  the 
occupancy  of  any  Christian  prince  or  people.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  the  next  depository  of  the  queen's 
bounty,  and  with  a  patent  equally  extensive,  planted, 
a  few  years  after,  the  first  English  colony  in  North 
America.  The  demeanour  of  the  English  towards 
the  natives,  might  have  been  anticipated  from  the  sen 
timents  of  their  monarch  and  the  principles  of  their 
Charter.  Deceived,  as  they  asserted,  by  the  represent 
ations  of  the  Indians,  in  regard  to  the  existence  of 
pearls,  gold,  and  silver,  they  committed  outrages  upon 
their  property  and  lives,  the  most  perfidious  and  cruel. 
To  these,  and  a  series  of  hostile  acts  and  absurd  pre 
tensions,  may  be  ascribed  the  perils  and  disasters  of 
Raleigh,  the  distresses  of  Smith,  and  a  long  succession 
of  subsequent  massacres. 

In  New  England,  the  natives  were  met  in  that 
spirit  of  calculating  prudence  and  cautious  circum 
spection,  for  which  the  puritans  were  famous.  So 
early  however  as  1624,  the  number  of  Indian  victims 
had  been  so  great,  and  the  injustice  of  the  pilgrims  so 
apparent,  that,  when  the  conversion  of  the  natives  was 
resolved  upon,  their  leader.  John  Robinson,  in  a  letter 
to  the  governor  of  Plymouth,  sarcastically  wrote, 


13 

"  Oh.  that  you  had  converted  some,  before  you  killed 
any."  To  various  acts  of  harshness  and  perfidy,  on 
the  part  of  the  English,  we  are  to  attribute  the  occur 
rence  of  the  Pequot  war.  They  surprised  their  ene 
mies  at  the  river  Mystic,  and  set  fire  to  their  wigwams. 
Many  of  these  were  consumed,  and  hundreds  of  men, 
women  and  children,  fell  in  battle,  or  perished  in  the 
flames.  The  survivors  were  pursued  with  a  vigilance 
so  active,  a  vengeance  so  fell  and  unsparing,  that  the 
once  formidable  tribe  of  Pequots  was  reduced  to  a 
few  wretched  fugitives,  and  soon  ceased  to  exist  as  a 

O  ' 

separate  nation.  The  barbarity  of  the  victors  did  not 
stop  here.  "Instead,"  says  the  historian,*  "  of  treating 
the  Pequods  as  an  independent  people,  who  made  a 
gallant  effort  to  defend  the  property,  the  rights,  and 
the  freedom  of  their  nation,  they  retaliated  upon  them 
all  the  barbarities  of  American  war.  Some  they  mas 
sacred  in  cold  blood  ;  others  they  gave  up  to  be  tor 
tured  by  the  Indian  allies  ;  a  considerable  number 
they  sold  as  slaves  in  Bermudas ;  the  rest  were  re 
duced  to  servitude  among  themselves." 

It  would  be  an  unpleasing.  a  repulsive  task,  to  refer, 
in  detail,  to  the  hapless  fates  of  those  great  men, 
Miantonimo,  Alexander,  Conanchet,  and  Philip. 
Their  memories  are  embalmed  in  the  historic  page, 

*  Robertson's  America,  vol.  ii.  page  258. 


14 

and  their  melancholy  story  would  form  a  topic  worthy 
of  the  powers  of  poetical  genius.  The  beautiful  and 
affecting  tribute  which  our  classic  Irving  has  paid  to 
the  valour,  conduct,  and  virtues  of  Philip,  must  ex 
cite,  in  every  reader,  a  tear  of  intense  sympathy  and 
poignant  regret. 

In  opposition  to  the  historian  of  the  west,  and  the 
prevailing  sentiments  of  the  present  day,  it  would  be 
easy  to  show,  that  Indian  wars  are  not  always  the 
unprovoked  offspring  of  Indian  cruelty.*  Some  for 
gotten  slight,  overreaching,  treachery,  or  violence,  has 
too  often  engendered  those  outbreaks  from  the  Indians, 
which  have  been  deemed  causeless  and  spontaneous. 
The  friendship  of  Penn  and  his  companions  carried 
with  it  the  proofs  of  its  own  sincerity.  During  the 
long  period  of  its  continuance,  the  Indians  made  no 
warlike  or  unfriendly  manifestation.  On  the  con 
trary,  all  was  harmony,  confidence,  and  kindness. 
In  after  years,  those  calamities  of  Indian  warfare 
which  afflicted  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,  may 
be  ascribed  to  a  fatal  change  in  the  policy  and  dispo 
sitions  of  the  state.  A  protracted  system  of  encroach 
ment  and  oppression  at  last  drove  these  faithful 
friends  of  our  ancestors,  disgusted  and  heart-broken, 
from  their  rightful  domains,  to  seek  independence  and 

*  See  Appendix.     Note  3. 


15 

security  in  the  remote  wilds  and  inhospitable  solitudes 
of  the  west. 

When  we  survey,  in  calm  retrospection,  the  origi 
nal  condition  of  the  natives  of  America,  when  we 
trace  the  history  of  their  wrongs,  and  contemplate 
their  present  enfeebled  state,  we  must  feel  mingled 
emotions  of  sorrow,  shame,  and  indignation.  The 
annals  of  mankind  exhibit  no  similar  instance  of  in 
juries  so  enormous,  of  atrocities  so  black  and  un 
avenged.  In  after  times,  when  the  Indian  fate  shall 

o  ' 

have  been  finally  sealed,  and  their  existence  known 
to  future  ages  only  through  the  impartial  medium  of 
authentic  history, — when  it  shall  be  told  that  they 
were  simple  and  unoffending, — that  their  aggressors 
were  enlightened  by  science  and  ennobled  by  Chris 
tianity, — that  they  carried  on  a  series  of  exterminat 
ing  wars  for  nearly  four  centuries,  killing,  defrauding, 
and  dispossessing  them,— by  what  arguments  will  the 
invaders  plead  their  justification  ? 

When  first  visited  by  Europeans,  the  Indians  were 
numerous  and  powerful,  happy  in  a  precarious  sub 
sistence  which  was  sweetened  by  the  freedom  of  an 
unfettered  independence.  They  were  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  a  religion  and  state  of  manners,  approved 
and  adopted  by  their  fathers  ;  of  a  home  endeared  to 
them  by  the  associations  of  childhood,  and  the  graves 


10 

and  reminiscences  of  their  kindred.  A  bountiful 
Manitto,  whose  voice  they  had  listened  to  in  the 
thunder,  as  well  as  in  the  sighing  winds  of  the  forest, 
supplied  them  with  game  ;  he  led  them  forth  to  battle  ; 
and  if  they  gloriously  fell,  he  was  ready  to  admit  them 
to  the  bliss  of  a  better  and  far  more  delightful  region. 
How  changed  is  the  scene  !  That  race  once  so  free, 
so  powerful,  so  full  of  heroic  fortitude  and  high- 
minded  honour,  are  dwindled  into  a  miserable  rem 
nant,  for  the  most  part  of  base  dependents  and 
degenerate  debauchees. 

"  Thus  to  deep  sadness  sullenly  resigned 
They  feel  their  body's  bondage  in  their  mind, 
Put  off  their  generous  nature,  and,  to  suit 
Their  manners  with  their  fate,  put  on  the  brute." 

Wretched  outcasts  from  their  native  homes,  they 
line  the  skirts  of  the  settlements  only  to  see  ease, 
comfort  and  plenty,  in  which  they  are  not  allowed 
to  share  ;  and  to  witness  the  protection  and  security 
of  a  society  from  which  they  are  excluded.  Of  the 
many  millions  who  roamed  for  ages  the  undisputed 
masters  of  our  extended  territory,  not  half  a  million 
survive.  A  few  of  these  retain  their  characteristic 
independence,  disdaining  the  shackles  of  civilised 
restraints,  and  the  dependence  imposed  by  fancied 
superiority.  These  scour  the  wilderness  as  before  in 
pursuit  of  game,  and  glory  in  the  proud  identity  of 


17 

their  habits.  Others,  smitten  with  a  taste  for  the  arts 
and  conveniences  of  an  improved  state  of  society, 
desire  to  secure  their  advancement  and  perpetuate 
their  existence  hy  claiming  the  privileges  of  immemo 
rial  right,  and  the  redemption  of  our  national  faith, 
pledged  to  them  in  the  form  of  solemn  treaties. 

Even  now  the  din  of  war,  and  reports  of  the  hideous 
battle-axe  and  scalping-knife,  ring  in  our  ears.  Where 
are  we  to  look  for  the  origin  of  these  disasters  ?  Where, 
but  in  that  same  remorseless  and  inexorable  policy 
which  has  extinguished  so  many  noble  spirits  in  death, 
and  forced  so  many  others  into  involuntary  banish 
ment?  The  weakness  of  the  southwestern  tribes  in 
point  of  number,  their  pitiable  condition  in  regard  to 
discipline,  would  teach  even  their  uninformed  reason 
of  the  folly,  the  absurdity,  of  an  offensive  war.  Do 
they  assume  a  belligerent  front  when  the  measures  of 
government  are  friendly,  and  their  treatment  by  its 
citizens  is  just?  The  proudest  Indian  resorts  to  war 
only  in  retaliation  of  inflicted  injury,  or  in  defence 
of  rights  either  violated  or  in  danger.  Revengeful 
sentiments  for  wrongs,  which  it  would  require  a 
volume  to  unfold,  swell  the  bosom  of  the  reviled 
Seminole,  and  urge  him  to  turbulence  and  desperation. 

But  this  insidious  and  oppressive  system  has  dis 
closed  to  us  a  new  feature  of  Indian  character,  at 
3 


18 

once  a  disproof  to  their  adversaries  and  honourable  to 
human  nature.  The  Cherokees  have  been  the  unre 
sisting  victims  of  a  persecution  which  has  disgraced 
this  age  and  country.  They  have  borne  its  accumu 
lated  pressure  without  a  single  act  of  violence.  They 
have  met  it  with  that  heroic  forbearance  which  looks 
for  redress  only  to  the  justice  and  magnanimity  of 
Congress.  Let  us  honestly  investigate  the  grounds 
upon  which  they  claim  the  protection  of  that  body  to 
which  they  appeal;  for  if  these  be  well  founded,  it  is 
our  duty,  as  the  friends  of  man — as  the  humble  repre 
sentatives  of  the  principles  of  William  Penn — to 
espouse  their  cause  and  second  their  pretensions. 

The  Cherokees  are  a  tribe  of  Indians  whose  early 
history  and  recent  misfortunes  are  alike  remarkable. 
They  are  honourably  mentioned  by  the  chroniclers 
and  travellers  of  the  last  age,*  as  attached  to  their 
native  soil;  and  exempted  from  those  erratic  propen 
sities  so  common  to  the  North  American  savage. 
With  a  very  extended  dominion,  they  united  an  in 
trepidity  and  prowess  capable  of  defending  it.  During 
the  war  of  the  revolution,  they  fought  upon  the 
English  side ;  and  so  valiant  and  brave  was  this 
warlike  people,  that  the  United  States  were  glad, 
upon  the  establishment  of  peace,  to  give  them  amnesty 

*  See  Appendix.     Note  4. 


19 

and  friendship  by  a  formal  treaty.  Their  territory 
then  included  thirty-five  millions  of  acres.  This  vast 
and  beautiful  region  was  blessed  with  a  delightful 
climate,  plentiful  streams  of  water,  and  a  soil  of  sur 
passing  fertility.  Numerous  successive  grants  to  the 
United  States  have  dwindled  down  this  princely  in 
heritance  to  about  eight  millions  of  acres,  of  which  an 
extensive  portion  is  comprised  within  the  map  of 
Georgia. 

The  first  compact  between  the  United  States  and  the 
Cherokee  nation,  was  the  treaty  of  Hope  well,  made  in 
the  year  1785.  Its  objects,  as  expressed,  were  to  esta 
blish  peace  and  friendship,  to  define  limits,  and  to  pre 
scribe  rules  for  the  prevention  and  redress  of  mutual 
injuries.  The  treaty  of  Holston,  concluded  in  1791,  has 
received  the  emphatic  sanction  of  Washington,  in  the 
twofold  forms  of  an  act  of  Congress,  and  a  previous 
convention  with  the  Creeks.*  Even  at  that  day,  the 
Cherokees  had  made  some  advancement  in  civilised 
life,  and  one  of  the  articles  was  intended  to  provide 
for  its  extension  by  the  general  distribution  of  agri 
cultural  implements.  In  the  fourteen  subsequent 
treaties  with  the  Cherokees.  the  existence  of  a  right 
to  the  soil  |  the  guarantee  of  that  right:  and  additional 
means  for  their  social  improvement;  are  kept  steadily 


*  s 


3ee  Appendix.     Note  5. 


20 

in  view.  Nowhere  is  it  impaired  by  direct  expression 
or  remote  implication.  In  the  last  of  those  four  great 
compacts,  which  were  framed  under  the  auspices,  and 
with  the  approbation  of  Washington,  the  United  States 
engage,  "  never  to  claim  the  lands  reserved  to  the  In 
dians."  The  final  treaty,  which  was  ratified  in  1819, 
was  a  definitive  cession  and  agreement.  Prior  to  its 
execution,  and  as  an  inducement  to  it,  the  Indians 
were  solemnly  assured  that  no  further  cession  of  their 
lands  thereafter  would  ever  be  solicited  or  required.  Its 
provisions  were  in  coincidence  with  those  liberal  and 
enlightened  principles  which  looked  to  the  perpetual 
residence  of  the  Cherokees  upon  their  native  soil,  in 
the  elevated  character  of  freemen.  A  permanent  fund 
was  to  be  created  for  the  diffusion  of  the  blessings  of 
education,  to  them  and  their  posterity  for  ever. 

From  the  first  compact  formed  by  the  United  States 
with  any  Indian  nation,  which  was  that  solemnly 
concluded  with  the  Dela wares  in  1778,  down  to  the 
treaty  with  the  Creeks  in  1826 — every  where  and  in 
each — will  be  found  profession  heaped  upon  profession, 
guarantee  following  guarantee,  inviolability  of  soil, 
and  perpetuity  of  friendship.  In  the  correspondences 
between  our  government  and  the  Indian  tribes, 
from  an  early  period,  they  are  affectionately  urged  to 
relinquish  the  occupation  of  hunting  for  the  more 
certain  pursuit  of  systematic  husbandry ;  to  train  their 


21 

children  in  letters  and  a  knowledge  of  civilised  life ; 
and  to  organise  a  regular  form  of  civil  and  political 
society.  They  are  assured  of  the  fidelity  with  which 
the  promises  of  treaties  would  be  kept,  in  securing  to 
them  the  absolute  ownership  and  exclusive  posses 
sion  of  their  property.  All  intrusion  into  the  Cherokee 
territory  is,  by  the  treaty  of  Hopewell,  plainly  pro 
hibited;  and  those  who  violate  the  engagement  are  to 
be  surrendered  to  the  Indians  for  discretionary  punish 
ment.  The  paramount  object  of  the  treaty  which 
followed,  after  prescribing  the  extent  and  terms  of  the 
cession.  Was  the  security  of  the  remainder  inviolate. 
The  treaty  of  1798,  concluded  at  Tellico,  confirms 
the  stipulations  of  antecedent  compacts,  by  assuring 
to  the  natives  for  ever  the  residue  of  their  country.  A 
long  succession  of  subsequent  contracts,  enforced  by 
the  ordinary  legislation  of  Congress,  provide  against 
the  invasion  of  their  property  from  white  settlers,  by 
the  summary  process  of  instant  eviction. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Cherokee  nation, 
for  her  own  protection,  is  in  a  state  of  political  pupil 
age  to  the  United  States.  It  is  equally  clear  that  her 
rights  of  territory  repose  upon  a  similar  basis.  But 
these  rights  are  indefeasible  in  their  nature,  and  abso 
lutely  perfect,  with  the  restriction  of  an  exclusive 
power  in  the  United  States  to  extinguish  the  title  by 
an  honourable  purchase.  She  cannot  sell  to  a  foreign 


22 

nation,  to  a  state,  nor  to  private  individuals,  under 
the  provisions  of  various  treaties,  recognised  and  en 
forced  by  acts  of  congress.*  This  question  was  pre 
sented  by  Jefferson  in  1793,  in  its  true  and  legitimate 
aspect.  He  regards  the  privilege  of  pre-emption  only 
in  the  character  of  a  remainder,  after  the  extinguish 
ment  of  an  existing  right,  which,  unless  voluntarily 
conveyed,  may  continue  for  ever.  This  doctrine  has 
received  the  approbation  of  all  concurring  authorities. 
It  has  been  approved  and  sustained  by  elementary 
writers  upon  jurisprudence ;  it  has  been  sanctioned 
by  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States ;  it  has 
been  reasoned  upon  and  adopted  by  the  state  papers 
of  the  federal  government. 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  engagements  under 
which  the  Cherokees  are  entitled,  by  virtue  of  laws, 
treaties,  and  promises,  to  the  duty  of  protection  from 
the  United  States.  I  might  assume  a  higher  position 
than  the  mere  recognition  of  a  right  to  their  own 
domain,  in  successive  compacts.  I  might  ascend  to 
the  basis  of  Indian  title,  and  claim  what  has  not  been 
surrendered,  upon  a  ground  beyond  and  superior  to 
any  recognition.  Let  them  roam  over  these  reserva 
tions  as  hunters,  or  cultivate  them  as  husbandmen,  or 
cover  them  with  cities,  and  no  right  under  the  law, 

*  Acts  of  1790  and  1802. 


23 

no  power  but  that  of  violence,  can  abridge  or  control 
them  in  the  absolute  ownership.  They  hold,  by  an 
immemorial  patent,  a  deed  whose  antiquity  no  one 
can  question,  because  its  date  is  indubitably  ante 
cedent  to  European  discovery,  and  too  early  for  the 
utmost  reaches  of  European  knowledge. 

But  the  state  of  Georgia  has  had  the  boldness  to 
interfere  with  these  possessions,  held,  as  they  are, 
under  the  twofold  sanctions  of  original  right  and 
treaty  stipulation.  She  has  ventured,  in  the  face  of 
her  own  engagements,  to  arrogate  a  jurisdiction  over 
the  territory,  and  a  title  to  the  estates  of  the  Chero- 
kees,  independent  of  the  United  States.  But,  until 
the  convention  of  1783,  between  the  Cherokees  and 
Georgia,  is  blotted  from  existence;  and  so  long  as  the 
compact  of  1802  is  preserved  among  the  public 
archives,  the  assumptions  of  the  latter  must  be  re 
garded  as  that  lust  for  dominion,  which  usually 
receives  the  name  of  fraud  or  usurpation. 

"  Tyranny 

Absolves  all  faith ;  and  who  invades  our  rights, 
However  his  own  commence,  can  never  be 
But  an  usurper." 

According  to  the  theory  of  her  doctrine,  broached  in 
1827,  and  since  reduced  to  practice,  her  rights  against 
the  Cherokees  are  unquestionable,  and  without 


24 

limitation,  since  her  force  is  able  to  second  her  preten 
sions.  She  possesses  the  physical  might  to  enforce  her 
claims,  if  a  superior  right  t  because  a  superior  power* 
will  lend  her  that  countenance  or  connivance  which 
she  requires,  for  the  completion  of  her  unjust  and 
iniquitous  projects. 

It  must  ever  prove  a  subject  of  unmitigated  regret, 
that  when  Georgia  had  asserted  her  monstrous  and 
perilous  doctrines,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
should  so  far  aid  the  tendencies  of  her  usurping  spirit, 
as  to  enact  the  law,  "  to  provide  for  an  exchange  of 
lands  with  the  Indians  residing  in  any  of  the  states  or 
territories,  and  for  their  removal  west  of  the  Missis 
sippi."  That  act  has  been  the  moving  cause,  the 
chief  instrument  of  the  persecutions  which  the  Che- 
rokees,  in  common  with  the  other  Indian  tribes,  have 
since  endured.  From  the  period  of  its  passage,  it  has 
been  proclaimed  as  the  settled  policy  of  the  govern 
ment,  to  effect  the  removal  of  the  Indians,  by  persua 
sion  or  by  force.  Remonstrance  has  been  followed 
by  menace.  These  proving  ineffectual,  every  species 
of  insult,  oppression,  and  tyranny,  has  been  resorted 
to  for  the  purpose  of  cruelly  sundering  those  ties  of 
deep-seated  attachment,  which  bind  man  to  his  native 
home.  Hordes  of  speculators  are  collected  from  all 

*  See  Appendix.     Note  6. 


25 

parts  of  the  Union,  observing  their  movements  with  a 
burning  impatience,  and  like  the  ravenous  Harpies 
in  Virgil,  ready  to  pounce  upon  their  possessions 
before  they  are  abandoned.  Is  it  gratuitous  or 
unfair  to  suppose,  that  these  greedy  expectants  of  the 
heritage  of  another  should  put  in  requisition  every 
guilty  means  to  gratify  their  desires  which  ingenuity 
might  prompt,  or  bad  instruments  accomplish  ?  Is  it 
gratuitous  or  unfair  to  suppose,  that  they  would  foment 
jealousies,  heart-burnings  and  mischief,  with  a  view 
to  impart  additional  impulse  to  that  screw,  which,  a 
public  agent  declared,  was  to  grind  the  Indians  into 
powder?  It  is  to  such  causes  that  the  shout  of  savage 
and  merciless  war,  from  the  enraged  Creek  and  the 
not  less  injured  Seminole,  has  penetrated  into  the 
shades  of  peaceful  settlements,  laying  waste  the  honest 
rewards  of  industry,  and  destroying  life  with  indis 
criminate  and  remorseless  butchery.*  It  is  to  such 
causes,  urged  on  with  a  more  desperate  spirit,  that 
the  improved  Cherokee  finds  his  life  a  grievous  and 
oppressive  burthen,  bowed  beneath  the  accumulated 
weight  of  secret  cabals,  of  bold  usurpations,  and  of 
ingenious  fraud.  It  is  their  unhappy  lot  to  own  a 
country  so  rich  and  beautiful,  as  to  allure  the  covetous 
longings  of  a  sagacious  and  hard-hearted  neighbour. 
The  delightfulness  of  the  climate,  the  fertility  of  its 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  7. 


26 

virgin  soil,  the  valuable  improvements  which  im 
mense  tracts  have  received  from  the  laborious  hand 
of  cultivation,  and  above  all,  the  existence  of  inesti 
mable  mines  of  the  precious  metals,  render  it  a  bait 
too  tempting  for  unprincipled  rapacity  to  resist. 

During  a  period  of  seven  years,  these  people  have 
patiently  withstood  the  combined  machinations  of  in 
ternal  enemies,  and  the  neglect  and  injustice  of  that 
government,  to  which,  under  the  solemn  sanctions  of 
laws  and  treaties,  they  might  reasonably  look  for  pro 
tection.  Georgia,  in  defiance  of  her  plighted  faith  to 
the  Cherokees,  and  her  allegiance  to  the  Union,  has 
claimed  the  whole  district  of  Indian  territory,  within 
the  limits  of  the  state,  as  her  own.  She  has  proceed 
ed  so  far  in  the  assertion  of  this  pretended  right,  as  to 
parcel  out  the  land  by  lottery  ;  and  with  the  strong 
arm  of  the  militia,  to  divest  the  rightful  possessors. 
Families,  on  whose  acres  the  wilderness  had  given 
place  to  fruitful  fields,  and  who  had  surrounded  them 
selves  with  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  civilised 
existence,  have  been  driven  away  in  the  midst  of 
winter,  to  seek  habitations  they  knew  not  whither. 
Women  and  children,  in  the  temporary  absence  of 
their  natural  protectors,  have  been  thus  exposed  to 
the  evils  of  famine  and  the  severity  of  the  elements. 
Cattle  belonging  to  private  individuals,  and  other 
species  of  movable  property,  have  been  subjected  to  the 


27 

wanton  depredation  of  thieves,  and  the  persons  of  the 
owners  to  the  violence  of  desperadoes.  For  the  re 
dress  of  these  injuries  they  have  sought  the  protec 
tion  of  the  United  States,  but  the  answer  of  the  govern 
ment  is,  that  they  have  no  power  to  interfere  ;  they 
have  sought  it  from  the  tribunals  of  the  state,  but 
equity  jurisdiction  has  been  closed  against  them  by 
express  legislation. 

A  cardinal  principle  of  Georgia  policy  has  been  to 
tire  out  the  people,  by  every  kind  of  causeless  vexation 
and  wan  ton  wrong.  Through  her  instrumentality,  the 
agents  of  the  United  States  have  suspended  the  pay 
ment  of  annuities,  due  by  virtue  of  long  subsisting 
treaties ;  and  have  called  elections  at  unusual  times, 
and  with  the  inadequate  object  of  deciding,  by  suf 
frage,  the  mode  of  their  reception.  Violence  has 
stalked  abroad  at  noon  day.  The  printing  press  of 
the  nation  has  been  forcibly  seized,  with  a  view  to 
silence  that  organ  of  public  sentiment  and  popular 
complaint.  Persons  of  respectable  character  arid  high 
standing  have  been  hurried  off  to  prison,  under  the 
authority  of  a  brutal  soldiery,  without  the  specifica 
tion  of  charge  or  the  formality  of  trial. 

Where  shall  they  fly  for  shelter  from  these  mani 
fold  evils  ?  Shall  they  give  up  that  home  which  they 
have  cherished  and  made  comfortable,  for  strange 


habitations  in  a  howling  desert  ?  Shall  they  abandon 
those  hills  for  ever  consecrated  to  every  feeling,  sen 
timent,  and  association,  which  can  render  them  dear 
to  the  heart? 

"  How  can  they  part  ?     The  lake,  the  woods,  the  hills, 
Speak  to  their  pensive  hearts  of  early  days, 
Remembrance  woos  them  from  the  haunted  rills, 
And  hallows  every  spot  their  eye  surveys." 

Shall  they  imitate  the  example  of  their  misguided  and 
desperate  brethren,  and  in  a  moment  of  frenzy,  grief, 
and  despair,  fly  to  arms,  as  their  own  avengers  ? 
Shall  they  tranquilly  reflect  upon  the  immense  ces 
sions  of  territory  with  which  the  promises  of  protec 
tion  were  bought, — promises  now  proved  to  be  empty, 
illusory,  unmeaning?  But  we  have  an  assurance 
against  any  warlike  sally,  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
people,  and  the  example  of  the  past.  Though  in 
number  exceeding  eighteen  thousand  inhabitants,  they 
prefer  the  pacific  means  of  petition,  remonstrance,  ne 
gotiation,  to  the  probable  chance  of  being  involved 
with  the  slaughtered  around  them,  in  promiscuous  and 
undistinguished  ruin.  Encompassed  as  they  are  by 
every  form  of  unmitigated  tyranny,  the  elevated 
style  of  their  appeals,  its  freedom  from  passion,  and 
the  manly  temperance  with  which  they  avouch  the 
plighted  faith  of  laws  and  treaties,  present  a  hurniliat- 


29 
ino-  contrast  to  the  deportment  of  their  oppressive 


neighbour. 


Ever  since  the  treaty  of  1819,  the  Cherokee  nation 
has  replied  to  each  application  for  a  sale  of  their  re 
maining-  estate,  in  the  firm  language  of  enlightened 
freedom.  "  The  treasury  of  the  United  States,"  say 
they,  "  does  not  contain  money  enough  to  purchase 
an  additional  acre."  They  have  felt  satisfied  with 
the  increase  of  their  social  attainments,  as  they  knew 
that  emigration  to  the  untamed  solitudes  beyond  the 
Mississippi  would  retard  their  advances  in  civilisa 
tion  and  refinement.  Already  their  domain  exhibits 
the  germs  of  a  taste,  which  bear  no  contemptible  com 
parison  to  large  districts  of  our  own  people,  in  the 
southern  and  western  country.  From  the  humble 
dwelling  of  logs  in  an  incipient  clearing,  to  comfortable 
and  even  elegant  edifices,  in  tracts  under  skilful  cul 
tivation,  the  Cherokee  region  presents  the  spectacle 
of  a  thrifty  and  enterprising  community.  The  unset 
tled  habits  of  nomadic  existence  are  gone.  They 
have  disappeared  amidst  the  diffusion  of  a  relish  for 
those  higher  enjoyments,  which  pertain  to  moral  and 
mental  melioration.  Nothing  seems  requisite  for  their 
realising  the  bright  visions  of  those  who  were  derided 
as  day-dreamers,  but  the  stretching  out  of  that  strong 
arm  in  their  defence,  which  has  sworn  to  sustain,  suc 
cour,  and  protect  them.  Shall  this  arm  be  powerless 


30 

or  timid,  when  the  rights  of  humanity,  the  faith  of 
treaties,  the  sanctity  of  laws,  and  the  sacred  honour 
of  the  nation,  are  all  directly  involved  ? 

In  pursuance  of  a  policy  so  disgraceful  and  cruel, 
the  attempt  has  been  recently  made  to  negotiate  a 
treaty  for  the  United  States  with  a  few  unauthorised 
persons,  on  a  basis  repugnant  to  the  sentiments  of 
the  Cherokee  people.  The  instrument  concocted  at 
New  Echota  is  deemed  imperfect  in  its  guarantees, 
and  exceptionable  in  most  of  its  provisions.  The 
constituted  authorities  of  the  nation  have  disavowed 
its  adoption,  as  a  palpable  fraud ;  and  the  people 
themselves,  in  an  almost  unanimous  mass,  have  pro 
tested  against  its  ratification.  They  prefer  to  be 
forced  from  the  country  of  their  birth  and  lineage,  by 
an  open  and  irrevocable  decree,  to  sanctioning  an 
iniquitous  and  spurious  compact,  extorted  by  the 
baseness  of  manoeuvre,  and  the  underhanded  secrecy 
of  stratagem.  No  one  can  deny  that  that  opposition 
must  be  strong  which  resists,  among  the  neediest  of 
the  people,  the  lures  held  out  by  the  instrument  itself, 
to  secure  their  acquiescence.* 

If  the  national  character  be  of  any  value, — if 
numerous  treaties  solemnly  made,  often  repeated, 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  8. 


31 

frequently  acted  upon,  and  solemnly  recognised,  from 
the  earliest  period,  by  each  succeeding  administration 
of  the  United  States,  be  worth  the  paper  they  are 
written  upon, — if  laws  and  compacts,  framed  for  the 
benefit  of  Georgia,  and  to  which  she  is  a  party,  be 
not  wholly  void  and  delusive, — if  the  rights  of  man  be 
of  any  consequence,  and  the  cause  of  Christianity 
and  civilisation  of  any  account, — then  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  the  United  States  to  drive  away  intruders 
from  the  Indian  lands ;  to  reinstate  the  rightful 
possessors  ;  to  repay  the  injured  the  amount  of  their 
losses  ;  and  to  protect  them  and  their  property,  in  all 
time  to  come,  from  open  violence,  predatory  invasion, 
and  insidious  fraud. 

May  not  the  difficulties  which  now  exist  with 
Georgia,  and  which  the  United  States  erroneously 
considers  as  insuperable,  soon  be  reproduced  with 
multiplied  additions,  in  regard  to  the  Indian  asylum 
across  the  Mississippi  ?  With  the  new  state  of 
Arkansas  on  one  side,  and  the  ambitious  province  of 
Texas  on  another,  what  shall  prevent  collision  and 
outrage?  What,  in  future  time,  will  prevent  the 
United  States  herself  from  reasserting  that  legal 
inability  to  guard  the  territory  from  invasion,  which 
she  now  professes,  in  the  face  of  guarantees  almost  as 
numerous  as  the  stars  ?  May  not  the  day  arrive, 
when  state  jealousy  or  personal  avarice  will  find  it 
convenient  to  distinguish  between  tribes  situated  on 


32 

their  immemorial  possessions,  and  those  who  have 
emigrated  to  distant  regions  ?  May  it  not,  then,  be 
expedient  to  embarrass  the  question  of  Indian  patents 
with  some  forgotten  legislation  or  doctrine  of  con 
structive  right,  or  to  impair  their  legal  efficacy  by 
the  act  of  Congress  of  1830?  May  not  the  Indians 
themselves  recede  into  savage  life ;  and  incited  by 
neighbouring  treachery,  or  stimulated  by  their  own 
passions,  be  in  a  state  of  perpetual  conflict  and 
disquiet  ? 

In  imitation,  therefore,  of  William  Penn;let  us  extend 
to  them  a  generous  protection  in  their  present  abode  ; 
and  lead  them,  by  all  the  means  in  our  power,  to  that 
civilisation  after  which  they  aspire.  The  glory  of  the 
republic  will  be  dimmed,  its  brightest  laurels  will  be 
faded  or  lost,  if  we  desert,  in  their  extremity,  a  people 
with  so  many  claims  upon  our  justice  and  sympathy. 
Let  us  prove,  like  Penn,  the  sincerity  of  our  friend 
ship — its  freedom  from  interested  alloy — by  the  unerr 
ing  test  of  active  kindness.  We  shall  thus  disarm 
those  bands  of  savages,  who  now,  in  the  spirit  of 
demons,  prowl  over  the  forests,  seeking  vengeance 
upon  the  defenceless  inhabitants  of  peaceful  and 
secluded  settlements.  We  shall  stanch  the  blood 
which  cries  to  us  from  the  distant  frontiers ;  and 
crown  humanity  with  those  precious  and  enduring 
results  not  merely  of  honourable  safety  to  ourselves, 
but  of  justice  and  civilisation  to  the  Indian  race  ! 


APPENDIX. 


XOTE  J.     SEE  PAGE  8. 

I  am  happy  to  see  similar  sentiments  to  those  in  the  text, 
in  the  excellent  biography  of  John  Elliot,  the  Indian  apostle, 
by  Confers  Francis.  This  Life  forms  the  fifth  volume  of 
Sparks's  American  Biography.  The  whole  work  is  replete 
with  evidence  that  the  Indian  is  capable  of  being  penetrated 
and  softened  by  the  offices  of  Christian  kindness.  The 
respectable  author  gives  his  opinion  at  large  of  ihe  Indian 
character,  which  is  homogeneous  with  the  text. 

Heckewelder  represents  the  Indians,  with  whom  he  was 
acquainted,  as  being  too  magnanimous  to  go  to  war,  without 
first  apprising  their  enemies  of  their  intention.  Nevertheless, 
the  Indian  custom  generally  is,  either  to  let  that  intention  be 
ascertained  by  acts  of  individual  outrage,  or  to  proclaim  it  by 
a  general  attack  upon  the  main  body  of  their  enemies.  The 
suddenness  of  these  assaults  is  the  pride  and  boast,  as  it  is 
the  chief  art,  of  untutored  policy.  Indian  magnanimity  in  war 
cannot  often  be  the  subject  of  praise,  any  more  than  certain 
usages  which  civilised  society  has  sanctioned,  in  hostile 
times.  The  education  of  the  Indian  has  taught  him  that 
5 


34 


such  a  mode  of  onset  is  not  only  allowable  but  meritorious. 
But  he  has  been  known  to  feed  his  adversary  in  time  of  war, 
averring  that  he  could  not  fight  with  a  starving  enemy.  A 
very  different  line  of  policy,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  is 
pursued  by  improved  states  !  It  is  permitted  by  the  code  of 
civilised  nations  to  starve  an  enemy  into  submission. 


NOTE  2.     SEE  PAGE  10. 

The  Lenape  tribe  was  solemnly  declared  a  nation  of 
women,  at  Albany,  in  1717.  Several  writers  of  New 
England  pretend  to  account  for  the  long  prevalence  of  peace 
in  Pennsylvania,  by  describing  this  people  as  originally  a 
miserable  and  inferior  race,  without  martial  pretensions.  I 
have  thought  it  of  sufficient  importance,  once  for  all,  to  refute 
this  notion,  by  a  reference  to  their  early  history  and  actual 
condition,  during  the  life  of  William  Penn.  They  were 
the  "Grand  fathers"  of  most  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  North 
America. 


NOTE  3.     SEE  PAGE  14. 

The  sentiment  objected  to  in  the  text  is  contained  in  "  The 
Indian  Wars  of  the  West,"  by  Timothy  Flint,  page  37.  He 
says — "  We  affirm  an  undoubting  belief,  from  no  unfrequent 
nor  inconsiderable  means  of  observation,  that  aggression  has 
commenced,  in  the  account  current  of  mutual  crime,  as  a 
hundred  to  one,  on  the  part  of  the  Indians."  This  testimony 


35 


is  contradicted  by  all  history  since  the  discovery  of  America. 
I  might  refer  indifferently  to  the  conquest  of  North  or  South 
America,  and,  not  confining  the  enquiry  to  the  early  settle 
ments  of  the  eastern  and  southern  parts  of  the  United  States, 
which  are  now  the  subjects  of  history,  appeal  to  recent  events 
in  the  West  and  South.  Many  historians  might  be  quoted  in 
confirmation  of  this  position.  Among  these  may  be  classed, 
with  no  impropriety,  the  novels  of  our  gifted  countryman, 
J.  Fenimore  Cooper.  Though  professedly  works  of  fiction, 
they  present,  in  relation  to  Indian  history  and  manners, 
portraitures  of  surpassing  fidelity  and  exquisite  genius. 
Cooper  is  not  so  much  the  fanciful  limner  as  to  paint 
the  Indian  the  usual  aggressor.  Judge  Hall,  of  Cincinnati, 
has  given,  in  his  highly  interesting  and  beautiful  "  Sketches 
of  History,  Life,  and  Manners  in  the  West,"  published  in 
1835,  the  most  abundant  and  accumulated  evidence  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  sentiments  of  Flint. 


NOTE  4.     SEE  PAGE  18. 

"  Historical  Account  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
Colonies  of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia,"  (edition  of  1779,) 
vol.  ii.  p.  221,  and  "  Bartram's  Travels,"  page  485,  are  here 
referred  to. 


NOTE  5.     SEE  PAGE  19. 

The  eleventh  article  of  the  treaty  of  Holston,  is  a  literal 
copy  from  an  act  of  Congress,  which  received  the  signature 


36 


of  President  Washington  on  the  22d  day  of  July,  1790,  and 
of  a  treaty  with  the  Creeks,  formed  at  New  York,  on  the  7th 
day  of  August,  1790.  These  facts  show  that  the  language 
and  provisions  of  that  treaty  had  been  subjects  of  great 
deliberation,  and  that  it  expressed  sentiments  of  policy  upon 
which  the  government  of  the  United  States  then  solemnly 
determined  to  act. 


NOTE  6.     SEE  PAGE  24. 

A  joint  committee  of  the  legislature  of  Georgia  made  a 
report  upon  the  subject  of  the  Cherokees,  which  was  approved 
by  the  senate  of  that  state,  December  27th,  1827.  The  fol 
lowing  passages,  which  occur  in  the  report,  are  alluded  to  in 
the  text.  "It  may  be  contended,"  says  the  committee,  "with 
much  plausibility,  that  there  is,  in  these  claims,  more  of 
force  than  justice ;  but  they  are  claims  which  have  been 
recognised  and  admitted  by  the  whole  civilised  world ;"  (we 
are  to  suppose  that  the  committee  here  refer  to  Pope  Innocent 
VIII.,  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  perhaps  to  Cortes  and  Pizarro;) 
"and  it  is  unquestionably  true,  that  under  such  circumstances 
force  becomes  right ."  Meaning,  we  may  presume,  that  force 
is  the  arbiter  to  decide  what  is  right. 

This  idea  is  more  distinctly  avowed  by  the  committee  in 
the  passage  snbjoined  : — "Before  Georgia  became  a  party  to 
the  articles  of  agreement  and  cession,"  (the  compact  of  1802) 
"she  could  rightfully  have  possessed  herself  of  those  lands, 
either  by  negotiation  with  the  Indians,  or  by  force;  and  she 


37 


had  determined  in  one  of  those  two  ways  to  do  so,  but  by 
this  contract  she  made  it  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to 
sustain  the  expense  of  obtaining  for  her  the  possession,  pro 
vided  it  could  be  done  upon  reasonable  terms,  and  by  nego 
tiation;  but  in  case  it  should  be  necessary  to  resort  to  force, 
this  contract  with  the  United  States  makes  no  provision;  the 
consequence  is,  Georgia  is  left  untrammeled,  and  at  full 
liberty  to  prosecute  her  rights  in  that  point  of  view"  (i.  e.  by 
force],  "  according  to  her  own  discretion,  and  as  though  no 
contract  had  been  made."  These  extracts  are  alike  deficient 
in  logic  and  morality.  To  quote  them  is  enough  to  consign 
their  authors  to  the  disgust  and  execration  of  mankind. 


NOTE  7.     SEE  PAGE  25. 

A  book  lately  published  at  Baltimore,  entitled,  "  The  War 
in  Florida;  being  an  exposition  of  its  causes,  and  an  accurate 
history  of  the  campaigns  of  Generals  Clinch,  Gaines,  and 
Scott;  by  a  late  Staff  Officer,"  contains  authentic  proof  of 
the  origin  of  the  difficulties  with  the  Seminoles,  and  abun 
dantly  confirms  the  observations  in  the  text.  The  two 
Memorials,  and  accompanying  documents,  addressed  by  the 
Cherokee  nation  to  the  last  Congress,  together  with  the/ecent 
letter  of  John  Ross,  the  principal  chief,  to  a  Friend,  demon 
strate  that  the  same  causes  have  been  in  operation,  a  little 
varied  by  local  circumstances,  among  most  of  the  Indian 
tribes. — Massachusetts  is  worthy  of  commendation,  for  her 
treatment  of  the  Indians  within  her  borders.  The  Marshpee 
tribe,  whom,  by  an  act  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature, 


38 

passed  in  1789,  it  was  death  to  teach  to  read  and  write,  were 
allowed,  in  1835,  a  liberal  annuity  from  her  school  fund,  for 
the  purposes  of  education. 


NOTE  8.     SEE  PAGE  30. 

It  appears,  that  out  of  a  population  of  eighteen  thousand 
Cherokees,  no  less  than  fifteen  thousand  have  protested 
against  the  pretended  treaty,  which  was  formed  at  New 
Echota,  on  the  25th  December,  1835.  Major  William  A. 
Davis  states,  in  a  communication  to  the  secretary  of  war, 
under  date,  5th  March  1836,  that  the  regular  delegation  were 
not  present  at  the  assembly,  nor  when  the  instrument  was 
signed.  He  says  that  a  feast  was  prepared,  to  secure  a  large 
meeting  of  the  Indians,  but  that  not  more  than  three  hundred 
men,  women,  and  children,  attended,  who  had  no  authority 
whatever  to  act  for  the  nation.  The  Cherokee  protest  to 
Congress,  under  date,  March  llth,  1836,  employs  this  em 
phatic  language  in  regard  to  the  ratification  of  this  spurious 
agreement:  "If  it  be  the  fate  of  the  Cherokee  people,  and  the 
decree  has  gone  forth,  that  they  must  leave  their  homes  and 
native  land,  and  seek  a  new  residence  in  the  wilds  of  the  far 
west,  without  their  consent,  let  them  be  expelled  and  re 
moved  by  an  act  of  congress,  when  they  or  their  posterity, 
in  after  times,  may  have  some  claims  upon  the  magnanimity 
of  the  American  people.  The  delegation  do  solemnly  de 
clare,  they  would  consider  such  an  act  preferable,  and  more 
humane,  than  the  ratification  and  enforcement  of  a  fraudulent 
treaty,  false  upon  its  face,  and  made  without  the  consent  of 
one  of  the  professed  contracting  parties." 


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